What if an artist that previously released one of the more fabulous experimental albums done on the Buchla 100 system from the Brandeis University would take a trip in a time capsule and use all anewed tools of the day and chooses to build a brand new album made from sounds of ordinary household equipment? Well; remember the âMy name is Marieta Cashmanâ album here on JNN? Altocumulus takes control again 40 years later!

HOUSEHOLD APOCALYPSE is made from the sounds that come through my window and up through the stairwell. It is also made from sounds of household objects used as percussion or drones: ceiling fans, struck pot lids and stroked springs,
crunched paper bag, rain in the gutter, shaken metal cans, clinking glass jarsâ¦whatever is at hand in my dwelling. All these were recorded on a Zoom H2 digital microphone and then imported and processed in Macintoshâs âGarageBandâ digital audio workstation/synthesizer. I then added synthesized sounds from GarageBand to accompany the household sounds, playing on a MIDI keyboard.

1. HOUSEHOLD APOCALYPSE: Pot lids, metal boxes, glass jars, helicopter flying overhead, GarageBand drones and sound processing.
2. NIGHT FEARS: Wall clock, GarageBand synthesizer
3. STAIRWELL OF SOULS: Stairwell ambience and neighbors. Banging on iron railings with a rubber shoe. Bouncing plastic toy ball on wooden surface. Shaking empty paint cans. GarageBand synthesizer.
4. BAG IT: Crumpled paper bag, GB synthesizer. Piece made for a challenge by Stillstreamâs Mike Metlay, to produce a piece that was between 2:00 minutes and 2:20.
5. SPRING SONG: Scraping and striking a spring in a bendable light fixture; miniature wind chimes, tree frog, GB synthesizer
6. HIGH SCHOOL GAME (Sheâs dating Max): Distant football game ambience and voices, autumn crickets, two gossipy boys on bicycles, GB synthesizer
7. AUGUST ANXIETY: Bathroom fan drone, chair scraping floor, August night insect ambience with thunder, GB synthesizer with MIDI electric piano
8. FOUR DAYS OF RAIN: Rainwater in a gutter, plastic water bottles, soda cans, coffee scoop, more rainwater in the gutter, GB synthesizer


This audio is part of the collection: Just Not Normal
It also belongs to collection:

Artist/Composer: Altocumulus
Keywords: Altocumulus; Composing field recordings; Creative Commons; experimental; free releases; household items; household utensils; just not normal

Creative Commons license: Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States

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Reviewer: mystified - - December 21, 2010
Subject: Great
A very enjoyable combination of atmospheric synth parts and cool sounds from ordinary, often metallic, objects. A great job, I am hoping for more.